Family Guy's Joe Could Walk, But He Walked The Line Between Nice Guy and Jerk, and Then Crossed It ~ Random Waves of Insight
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Sunday, October 7, 2007

Family Guy's Joe Could Walk, But He Walked The Line Between Nice Guy and Jerk, and Then Crossed It



I watched the new Family Guy a few hours ago, and enjoyed it. The commercials for it had all been playing up Joe's newfound ability to walk. If you've never watched the show before, Joe is a police officer who fell off a roof and lost the use of the lower half of his body. Tonight's episode saw him getting a full transplant -- a new set of legs. Joe is ultra-macho, and his upper body is incredibly developed. Even without the use of his legs, he was still the best cop in town. When I saw the ad showing him walking again, I thought, "He'll be... unstoppable!"

He did become unstoppable, and far more active, to the point where he ditched his old friends because they were too lazy. Mayhem ensued in order to recreate the status quo, and suffice it to say things got back to normal (by any means necessary).

The moral of the story is: When you live in a cartoon, you shouldn't live to please others. Joe wanted his wife to be happy (she had been subtly expressing disappointment at the current state of affairs) and had the surgery. Then he was living his life, and his friends and wife ended up forcing him to undo what had initially been repeatedly hinted at by her at the start.

If cartoon people can be that fickle (which history has been proven to be the case), even fellow cartoon people you love and care about, then why bother doing something to satisfy them when five minutes later they'll turn around and say, "Nah, I liked it better the way it was,"?

I guess that's the way most shows are. Stuff happens to upset a balance, the balance must be restored, and then is. The exciting thing is that while there is only one way things can come together in perfect balance, there are infinite variations when it comes to tipping things in a new and interesting way.

Maybe next week -- Future Robot Family Guy vs. Clone Family Guy vs. Alternate Universe Family Guy vs. Higher Self Spirit Form Family Guy vs. Evil Family Guy vs. Martian Copycat Family Guy vs. Long Lost Twin Family Guy vs. Future Ghost Family Guy vs. Lookalike Cousin Family Guy vs. Unrelated Doppelganger Family Guy vs. The REAL Family Guy...vs. Superman, disguised as Family Guy!

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